NOTES 1899 1. Not to be confused with the Frank J. Hugh O'Donnell who wrote plays in the 1920'S. This earlier O'Donnen was an ex-Pamellite who distributed in Dublin his anti-Yeats pam~ phlet Souls for Gold. 2. These "idiotic-looking youths" were fellow university students of James Joyce, who refused to sign their manifesto of protest or to join them. The novelist recalls this episode in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1900 1. On this date were performed for the first time Maeve, a psychological drama in two acts by Edward Martyn, and The Last Feast of the Fianna, a play in one act by Alice Milligan. Peter Kavanagh in The Story of the Abbey Theatre (New York: Devin-Adair, 1950) incorrectly lists their first performances as occurring on February 21. Lennox Robinson in Ireland's Abbey Theatre (London: Sidgwick rand Jackson, 1951) incorrectly lists their first performances as occurring on February 22. Lady Gregory in Our Irish Theatre (London & New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1913), Andrew E. Malone in The Irish Drama (London: Constable & Co., 1929), and Brinsley MacNamara in Abbey Plays, 1899-1948 (Dublin: Calm a Lochlainn, n.d.) correctly list Miss :vI:illigan's play for February 19, but incorrectly list Moore's The Bending of the Bough for the same date. Miss Una Ellis-Fermor in The Irish Dramatic Movement (London: Methuen & Co., 1939) lists no performances for February 19, but a lecture by Yeats on Maeve. 274 NOTES TO PAGES 11-24 This remarkable confusion about a matter of easily verifiable facts is a typical instance of the many factual errors permeating the histories and memoirs of the Irish Renaissance . Perhaps the most scholarly and accurate of the abovelisted historians is Miss Ellis-Fermor, who in this instance relied upon the theatrical programs contained in the miscellany of clippings and information relating to the dramatic movement that was gathered by W. A. Henderson and is housed in the National Library of Ireland. In this instance, however, the Henderson programs were incomplete, and the files of contemporary newspapers might have been consulted as giving the most accurate information. The present editors have found that HollowayCs facts almost invariably tally with reports in the press and with extant theatrical programs; nevertheless, all available reliable sources have usually been consulted when a matter of fact was in doubt, and we have sometimes ventured in notes to correct the occasional factual errors of our predecessors. 2. The Bending of the Bough was first produced on February 20. The dates for the first performance given by Lady Gregory, Malone, and MacNamara are incorrect. 1901 1. Although Lady Gregory and Miss Ellis-Fermor both consider Hyde's play the first to be produced in Irish in Dublin, Holloway records a previous Irish play. On August 27, in the Antient Concert Rooms, the Ormonde Dramatic Society of the Fay brothers had produced P. T. McGinley's one-act Eillis agus an Bhean Deirce (Eily and the Beggar Woman). 1902 1. James Cousins., 2. The Pot of Broth by Yeats, The Racing Lug by Cousins, and The Laying of the Fdundations by Ryan were being played. 1. Stephen Gwynn, secretary of the London Irish Literary Society, arranged for the Irish Players to come to London, and on May .2 they presented several productions there. The [54.85.255.74] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 03:00 GMT) Notes to Pages 24-60 275 London trip was an important step in the life of the com~ pany, for the group both won the praise of leading critics and increased the interest of the wealthy Miss Horniman in it. 2. The original title of On the King's Threshold. 1904 1. For Miss Homiman's letter of April, 1904, in which she indicates the extent of her aid to the Company, see Robin~ son's Ireland's Abbey Theatre, pp. 44-45. 2. In The Shadowy Waters. 3. Robinson and MacNamara incorrectly list the first production as January 25, 1904. 4. Some interesting photographs of this production are included in Alan Denson's Letters from AE (London: Abe~ lard-Schuman, 1961). 5. Sponsored by Martyn in June, 1903, this group was oue of many that cropped up during the early years of the century in Dublin as part of its theatrical flowering. See Anna I. Miller, The Independent Theatre in Europe, 1931, pp. 305 ff. 6. The final bill for the patents amounted to £45p..10. Miss...